1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to automatic vending machines and more particularly to serpentine commodity racks for such machines.
2. Prior Art
The general construction of the conventional serpentine type commodity rack is outlined hereinafter with reference to FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 designates left and right side plates for the rack 200, between which a plurality of curved rail segments 2 are installed in vertical combination one after the other, thereby constituting two rows of guide rails 3 and 4 one at the front side 202 and one at the back side 204. Between the guide rails 3, 4 there is defined the serpentine passageway 5 for the articles which extends in the vertical direction. The passageway 5 has openings at its top and bottom ends facing frontwards of the commodity rack, the top opening being an inlet 6 for the articles and the bottom opening being an outlet 7 for removing dispensed articles. Further, a vending mechanism 8 for removing and checking the articles, one at a time, in accordance with instructions for vending is installed at the outlet 7 for dispensing the purchased goods at the bottom end of the passgeway 5. Numeral 9 designates a fixed pin for each of the curved rail segments 2, and numeral 10 denotes a top tray provided at inlet opening 6 on the top end of passageway 5.
In for foregoing commodity rack 200, the steps for receiving the articles for vending are as follows. Articles 11 in cylindrical containers are supplied through the top inlet opening 6 with their longitudinal axes horizontal and roll down the commodity rack 200, one-by-one. Accordingly, a cylindrical article 11 rolls on the top tray 10 and at the end of it drops into passageway 5 in the direction indicated by arrow A, while hitting the concaved surface of each of the guide rails 3, 4. The subsequent articles follow the same course and sequentially drop on the articles already accumulated at the bottom end of passageway 5. All of the supplied articles are accommodated in the passageway in a queue. When instructions for vending are imparted to the vending mechanism 8, that mechanism is actuated to release the thus stored articles, one by one, starting with the lowest one, as is already well known.
Recently, the articles sold by automatic vending machines have become diversified, the containers for them ranging from metal cans to glass bottles. These various types of containers also have various contents for example carbonated beverages and beer.
As indicated, the afore-described serpentine type of rack has a tortuous passageway 5 and the vending articles supplied at the inlet 6 roll down the tortuous passageway 5 along a zig-zag path. The force of impact produced when they drop on one another can thus be relatively slight, and their containers can withstand such shock. Even so, the dropping speed increases as an article rolls freely downward into the rack from the inlet 6 and acquires significant momentum just before it reaches its final stoppage position. On account of this, when articles or goods in fragile containers, such as glass bottles, are thrown into the passageway 5, the containers are frequently broken by the impact force experienced on landing at the bottom of the commodity rack, or from collisions with other bottles. Even if the glass bottles do not in fact break, the carbonated content such as beer and carbonated beverages exhibits abnormal foaming when the bottle cap is removed due to the shock of the collison. In addition, articles with barrel-shaped containers and others which are relatively unstable in posture tend to readily lose their rolling pose even upon very slight contact with the structural element defining the passageway, as their rolling speeds increase. As a consequence, containers smaller than the passageway, in particular, tend to lose their posture during the roll-down movement in and along the passageway. There is, therefore, a great possibility that they will become lodged on their way down the passageway, thereby causing the path to clog with articles.
From this point of view, it is desirable in the serpentine type of commodity rack that the dropping speed of the articles be restricted as far as possible to thus diminish the impact load resulting from the fall of the articles, and to accurately maintain the rolling posture of the articles during their downward rolling movement through the passageway. Hence, while it may be desirable to construct the passageway in the commodity rack such that its inclination is only slight, such construction will increase the depth of the rack. The consequence is that the outer casing of the automatic vending machine also increases in depth, thus taking up more space at the shop front or wherever the automatic vending machine is to be installed. Such space is rarely available.
In view of the afore-described problems, it is a primary object of the present invention to eliminate the above-mentioned defects inherent in the serpentine type commodity racks of conventional automatic vending machines.
This object is achieved by a commodity rack as set forth in claim 1 with further advantageous features being characterized in the dependent claims.